Here's the short of it - Thank you for being a wonderful community, and I'm wishing you all farewell as it's unfortunately time to move on due to the last 7 months. Read on if you want.

The long of it: :soap:

Back in June, I had a trip to North Carolina to visit family and I was not going to subject the Trac to the trip as I planned on driving the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way back, and it needed a few things fixed. So, in the meantime I dropped off the Trac at the SO's uncles shop hoping he could get the small things fixed in the 10 days we would be gone. Anyhow, Day 8 rolls around and we're on our way back and all that so we decided to call him.. Turns out he hadn't gotten the truck into the shop yet. Not sounding good at all. :angry:

So we arrive home on Day 10, drop off the rental (Volkswagen Tiguan - had a manual shift mode which came in very handy on the parkway, highly recommend if you plan on driving it) and am stuck at home with no truck. Uncle says he'll get to it ASAP. By now I've started to learn my lesson.

Abridging the rest of the story quickly, we got the Aunt's car while waiting as she was out of work for medical reasons. :banghead:

To wrap up that saga, I got the Trac back on 23 December 2016. Also got billed an extra $500 on top of what the original quote was, but uncle said didn't charge us for labor not on quote. Now I'm out $1500 and highly perturbed, I was still glad I had it back. We began using it as DD again. No issues whatsoever.. Read on for more.

Cut to 31 December.. Decided to take the Trac out for a drive up to my Dad's. About 3/4 of the way there on the highway, CEL starts flashing. Fortunately, I had my Bluetooth reader already connected and got P0304. Pulled off the highway, picked up a new plug at NAPA - Autolite Platinum. Get to my dad's, and had to change it out. Old was super rusted, new one was gapped correctly and I put it in no real issues.

Obviously I had to make it home, so I drove home and it was great on the highway until I got back into town. CEL flashing again. At this point I'm a happy camper and I realize that I should not have driven it that hard so soon.

Inform SO when she gets home, look of disappointment about the truck and anger at me for driving it (warranted). Furious research on how to fix it begins. SO and I decide that I'm not putting more money into the truck, and it's time to let it lie. It's been driving a maximum of 1 mile a day (SO to work and back) and that's the extent to which I use it.

Lesson learned: Never go to family for car work. (There are exceptions, but YMMV.)

So now, I'll regretfully be purchasing a used 2016 (Yota Camry or Rav4) on Thursday, trading in the Trac and hopefully will not have many issues with the new vehicle. I'm aware I probably won't get near what I want on trade-in, but I'm not about to keep driving it all over the place and potentially compounding the issue.

But I do want to say that this has been the greatest resource for me during my time as a Trac owner and I thank you all for being so wonderful.

Sorry you have had a few challenges with the 'Trac. Obviously none of us can tell you what to do, but my suggestion would be if you really want to buy something newer buy something 3 or so years old for about half price. My wife and I added a 2013 Ford Edge SEL AWD to our household last summer. When it was new it listed for right at $40k. It had 46k miles on it and we gave $22k. Very pleased with the vehicle, with the purchase, and no regrets. Let someone else eat the depreciation is what I am suggesting.

As to the 'Trac, I have an '05 that is trouble free. I have had a few items along the way, some of which I have posted on here about, but overall I am very pleased with the vehicle. Mine has 120k miles on it and I expect it will at least double that based on experience so far. I ran into a gentleman that other day with 265k on his '05, and still has original engine and transmission with no rebuild needed.

I know Toyota is known for reliability, but they, too, have issues that have to fixed over time. So do Honda. And BMW. And GM. Basically, they are mechanical and they all break...

If you keep the 'Trac, find you a good mechanic that knows Fords.. It makes all of the difference in long-term reliability.

You had a 15 year old Sport Trac?? It far out lived many other vehicles on the road today.

Preventive maintenance goes a long way in extending the life of the vehicle. Sometimes people fool themselves by expecting that anything they buy should last forever...that is setting yourself up for disappointment.

I thought about purchasing older as well, but I like the look and features of the newer Rav4 / Camry models; glad to hear you made out like a bandit! I understand that all vehicles have issues, Trac was at 183k and climbing, I bought it when it had 128k and it was very good to us over the last 5 years.

The real issue (to which I will vehemently deny if it ever gets out) is that the GF didn't like me always tinkering with it to get things the way I wanted. She thinks the new car will stop me.

Rich,

Certainly did! Bought it when it was 10 years old, to boot! Put new rockers on it 2 years ago and wanted to keep it going. I understand about the preventive maintenance, was trying to do that when I dropped it off with the uncle and we just had a really bad experience. Still have yet to find a mechanic that I trust, the last few have been bad and ended up costing more than I had budgeted. I'm not hoping this new car lasts forever, none of them do, though I do appreciate that insight, I will not forget it!

Todd,

Always found your advice on this forum no matter where I looked, and I am glad for that. Regarding plugs, wires, pack -- yes I'm quite positive that would be the right move, I've been restricted from spending any money on the Trac at all. I'm sure if I ordered the items on Amazon today and had them in tomorrow, I could have her purring again.

As always, I appreciate your insight. I agree totally about this forum, it's been an amazing resource and I wish there were forums of this quality for every type of car. We've been thinking about a new car for a while now, even before June. I would love to keep the Trac, I'll see what they will give us for a trade-in price. If it's not in line with what I estimate to fix it, I'll keep it.

Eddie,

Initially I wanted a Tacoma 4 door, until I started looking at price tags.. Even the ones that are 5+ years old still cost more than the new Camry/Rav, and for good reason. Unfortunately my budget does not yet allow for a Tacoma in my life, but in a couple years I anticipate that to change. 100% agree on the good looks, Toyota has seemed to have done well with the eye appeal on their designs.

I'll still check in here from time to time, and like I told Todd, it depends on what the dealer wants to give me for my truck, KBB says $2,000, but they'll probably say 500 and I'll maybe tell them to pound sand. Either way, the Trac has impressed me, and I will let you all know in a couple days how it all works out. Appreciate all the advice from those that are able to be on here (couple off the top of my head, Todd, swshawaii, Rich, Eddie, Vic) and I appreciate every single member that has shared advice, it's how we all become more knowledgeable.